Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?
A Plea For Tolerance In The Face Of New Dogmas
by Bertrand Russell (1947)
I speak as one who was intended by my father to be brought up as a
Rationalist. He was quite as much of a Rationalist as I am, but he died
when I was three years old, and the Court of Chancery decided that I
was to have the benefits of a Christian education.
I think perhaps the Court of Chancery might have regretted that since.
It does not seem to have done as much good as they hoped. Perhaps you
may say that it would be rather a pity if Christian education were to
cease, because you would then get no more Rationalists.
They arise chiefly out of reaction to a system of education which
considers it quite right that a father should decree that his son
should be brought up as a Muggletonian, we will say, or brought up on
any other kind of nonsense, but he must on no account be brought up to
think rationally. When I was young that was considered to be illegal.
Sin And The Bishops
Since I became a Rationalist I have found that there is still
considerable scope in the world for the practical importance of a
rationalist outlook, not only in matters of geology, but in all sorts
of practical matters, such as divorce and birth control, and a question
which has come up quite recently, artificial insemination, where
bishops tell us that something is gravely sinful, but it is only
gravely sinful because there is some text in the Bible about it. It is
not gravely sinful because it does anybody harm, and that is not the
argument. As long as you can say, and as long as you can persuade
Parliament to go on saying, that a thing must not be done solely
because th ...